Jamie Roy
When you enter this peculiar, gaudy world of the casino, whether online or offline, venues such as these attract people of many walks of life. They are driven to these joints for a variety of reasons. For some, it’s just for fun. Others take it extremely seriously and have spent hundreds of hours working on a craft in the hope of meeting their big day. Of course, every human being is different, but there are common motivations and headspaces not hard to spot when you observe people long enough.
This may be greed, unbridled optimism, dishonest tactics, gregariousness, peculiar machinations, or demonstrations of skill. In any case, these can be categorized into 7 basic types of gamblers. Which one are you?
The Newbie
These types are one of the easiest to recognize. These people quickly and happily give themselves away. They often ask a lot of questions and request a lot of help in terms of strategies and what to do with their winning tickets. Everybody starts out gambling sometime.
These people are most likely to flock to the simplest games, which are first and foremost slots, bingo, and crash games. Jet X Game has created a total cult following, since everyone understands the rules clearly right out the gate, and the longer you wait, the higher the multiplier you get, but if you wait just a moment too long and the plane crashes, you’re bet is gone. Games restart over and over too and last less than a minute.
One of the common myths people say about novices is that they start out lucky for some reason. Well, when this does happen, they do have a tendency to become over-emboldened. In other words, if they start off on the up and up, they often start throwing around wagers recklessly.
On the other hand, what the typical novices tend to do, exhibiting a bit of nervousness, is just test the waters. So when it comes to slots, they’ll just wager a single dollar in their spins or bet the bare minimum at the blackjack table. Watch out for impostors though at the poker table, as pretending ignorance and lack of experience is a common bluff people use to lure in fools to make bluffs, right before they sink in their teeth.
The Social Gambler
Gambling is an emotionally packed experience. People go through a whirlwind of emotions. Many such people do so in a healthy way, accompanied by their friends. When you get a big win, the first thing you wanna do it is shout it off the top of a mountain if you’re this category. Having people join you adds so much more to the experience. If you hit rock bottom, your friends and family will be right there to cheer you up.
On the other hand, sometimes that desire for company drags in people who never intended to gamble. Oftentimes, friends gather for a party, and a few of them propose throwing down for a game of Texas Hold’em. While you’re there to have a good time, the last thing a lot of people want to do is be a downer and disappoint everyone. Sometimes they come along to the casino too. You can notice these people who are hanging around but are a little bit checked out of the scene and not particularly enthusiastic.
Right now, there is also a very popular genre called social gambling, which is most popular among middle-aged women in developing countries. These people literally gamble just for the camaraderie of it. What this entails is people gambling just for valueless digital cash instead of real money. It’s legal in the vast majority of countries, unlike iGaming itself. These people gamble just to have a reason to socialize with their friends and have a little competitive fun with them. You can definitely recognize them when they’re sharing their achievements and winnings on their social media walls.
Social gambling for fake cash is actually a hugely lucrative industry. That’s because even though people can’t win or withdraw any of the money, the option does exist to use real money to buy more entertaining versions of the game, extra credits, accessories, and attain access to exclusive tournaments.
The Problem Gambler
Sometimes at the casino, as you socialize and inquire of other people how much they’re betting, you can get shocked at how much they continue to wager despite biffing it over and over big time. You can enquire as to what it is they do and where they’ve taken all that money and learn that they even borrowed it or are unemployed. Sometimes you see somebody lose and lose all over again, and they have an intense, outcome-dependent air to them.
Unfortunately, gambling addiction is a real thing, and there are many pathologies people get while they’re gambling. There are many poor people, especially in developing countries, where they don’t see many opportunities for themselves, where they view gambling as their biggest chance to bring home some money. It’s sad but true.
Then there are people who talk about what a rough day they’ve had and how since they’ve just had a really rough stretch, lady luck is smiling at them right around the corner. Science Direct cites this as a defining feature of disordered gambling. This is a really common misconception. Even though taken over thousands of bets, casino bets do eventually equalize to the RTP, the variance is drastically greater when it comes to typical individual people. You should never view gambling as a means of making an income but instead merely as a form of entertainment.
The Professional Gambler
These people arrive with a very focused, calculated vibe to them. You see them using all kinds of moves that novices don’t even know about. These are especially common at the card table. Many of them come to the poker table wearing sunglasses, clearly deliberately so as to not reveal the descent of their glance. These are not particularly social people usually, as they are immersed on their thoughts and upping their chances in a system they’re confident in.
You may observe them at the craps table placing combination bets and going against the grain with don’t pass bets, something that ruffles the feathers of the other attendees placing bets as well. These people are not there to be necessarily liked and certainly aren’t there to follow the herd. Table games are the favorite games of most of these people, since it’s games like Blackjack and Poker that offer the lowest house edge, so winning at these games depends very heavily on your skill.
These individuals are least likely to be seen playing slots and other simple games, because slots and games created for the masses are literally 100% based on luck, and there is nothing that you can do other than budgeting to increase your shot at winning.
The Whale
These are the cash cows of every casino. In fact, it is this 2% of gamblers that contributes 80% of casinos’ profits. It is these people that enjoy huge comps, free meals, even free trips, and dedicated customer care reps wherever they go. Half of these enjoy unloading a huge amount of money in the very beginning in pursuit of achieving prestigious statuses and awards. They really feed off of the prestige. And they are the reason loyalty programs exist. Every casino obsesses over how to lure in these people and then incentivize them from ever wanting to go to another casino.
The other types don’t bet a particularly gaudy amount at once, but they keep betting very, very frequently. What differentiates a whale is the overall amount that they sink into casinos. And the reason they fall under this type and not the problem gambler category is that they have the money to spend. If you can afford laying down serious chips, there is no reason not to. The ideal case though is you aren’t wagering more than 10% of your income. That said, casinos like to brag about how heavily they fleece these whales.
The Superstitious Gambler
These people are fascinating and amusing to watch. They walk into a casino like they’re entering a temple and the gods of fortune are actively listening. You’ll see them rub the same coin in their pocket between plays, tap the side of the slot machine three times, avoid certain seats at a blackjack table, or insist on cutting the deck a specific way. They may swear that red underwear on roulette night brings luck, or that a certain dealer is cursed.
The Personality Gambler
These people certainly are problem gamblers, but in this case they are a problem for other people. What they do is employ dirty tactics in order to win. These people may use marked cards, loaded dice, or fix a football match. They often also steal other people’s money to go gamble with. Beware, because scams do exist in casinos. These people often have a poor work ethic, have had many jobs, and have engaged in criminal behavior in the past.
